LADY POSTLETHWAITE'S WILL.

Otago Witness, Issue 1929, 9 November 1888, Page 30

LADY POSTLETHWAITE'S WILL.

11 Phil," said my father, " here's a note from Lady Postlethwaite. She wants to see me this morning, to take instructions for a codicil to her will. I can't go, so you must."

I received the suggestion with sufficient ungraciousness. It upset my plans for a rapid despatch of office work that morning and an afternoon's holiday on the ice at He'ndon.

" Lady Postlethwaite doesn't know me," I demurred. "Wouldn't she rather wait till you are better ?" " Bless my soul ! " interrupted my father testily. " When did you ever know me to get better? The fit is due, sir 1 1 feel it flying about me* at this moment, and here you go aggravating it with your stupid, paltering objections. Do you mean to go, or do yon not."

"Of course I'm going, as soon as I get the address. I only thought of your being her ,old and confidential friend "

41 Old friends be 1" exploded my father, iand then I knew it mas gout. A false alarm made him " bless his soul" occasionally, but nothing short of the real thing ever drove a profane expletive from those Gol 1 -fearing lips. I knew my father's visits to his client were solemn undertakings, lasting half the clay at shortest, and inwardly resolved to astonish his valued old friend into a more rapid despatch of her affairs, bo as to get away before the afternoon waned. I had never seen Lady Postlethwaite. I only knew that she had a, large fortune and was much exercised as to its eventual disposal. " Lady Postlethwaite's Will " came round as regularly in my father's diary as quarter day; and about as frequently. I journeyed in a sulky mood through the frost-fog to the suburban region where ♦•Deodara Lodge 1 then stood. A smart villa residence with much glass and ornamental shrubbery surrounding it. There was an air of trim luxury, of a costly, quiet sort about the whole place. The little smiling maid-servant who opened the door was the only incongruity. She trotted before me down a warm, hushed hall to a door through which she ushered me and left me alone, as I thought. The room was rich and sombre, heavy with mahogany, gloomy with damaek. A bright fire snapped and sparkled in a marvellously polished steel grate ; over the mantelpiece, in a gorgeous gilded frame, hung a portrait of a little grey man in the full splendour of aldermanic robes, and in front of the fire in the depths of a great leathern arm-chair, a little old lady slumbered soundly. A comfortable, rosy-cheeked old-lady, with greyish-brown curls pinned at each side of her placid little face, a very smart cap, diamond rings on her plump little mittened fingers, and a satin gown, in the lap of which rested a religious newspaper and a tortoiseshell cat, who opened one sleepy eye as I softly approachd over the thick Turkey carpet. The next minute puss' mistress had sprung to her feet bolt upright, and wide awake, and catching the cat deftly with one hand gave mine a cordial shake with the other.

"Mr Philip Austen I No mistake about that I" she exclaimud. " Eh, but you're like your good father ! So you caught me napping, I've done a long morning's work ; the

hardest in the house I sometimes think ; and I'm not so young as I was. Put down that hat and take your coat off. That's better. Now you'll just have a t*h-s of wine jin-1 a piece of cake after your journey." The little maid came in answer to the bell, but I strenuously protested that I could eat nothing, that my time was limited, that I never touched wine in the morning. Lady Postlethwaite looked as honestly disconcart ed as if I had been guilty of some breach of etiquette, but beckoned the maid and gave her a bunch of keys and some lengthy and minute whispered directions which I feared referred to luncheon.

I delivered all my father's explanations and apologies. "An old gentleman crippled with gout! And that's what handsome Phil Austen has come to : the neatest dancer and the finest figure of a young fellow that you could see, once upon a time. A noble pair they made —he and Miss Anne Hooper. Eh, lad, lad I but it's a sad thing to grow old ; or it would be, if it weren't for you young ones being loft to us !"

She looked at me with such kindly eye; that I felt ashamed of my impatience.

"Did your father send me nothing by you ?" she .asked. I gave her a sealed envelope, which she opened. It only contained a small key. " This is a fancy of mine. Look here," she said.

It fitted the lock of a central compartment in a large bookcase that stood in the room. A tall, narrow space between the shelves of books, evidently intended to contain maps or engravings. It was only a few inches in width, and the glazed panel of its door looked hardly wider than the slit of a letter-box. It was empty save for a long blue envelope tied with fancy ribbon and sealed with a large red seal. She took this out. " This is my will, you see. I can look in through the glass at it every day if I like and know that it's safe, but 1 am secured from tampering with it except with the knowledge and consent of your father. That is Sir Josiah's old seal. You see, there is only my name ami the date outside the envelope, though no one could possibly read anything through that glass if they tried." She broke the seal and opened out the enclosed document, looking wistfully ab me as she did so. "To think of you—the baby that I remember in your red shoes and sash —coming to help me with this weary weight of money I A quarter of a million. An awful charge for one poor old body. And one not brought up to the position either: your father will have told you that ?" "He once said something ," I hesitated. " Told you I was Sir Josiah's cook most likely," she said, smoothing out the sheets of paper with a composed smile. " Well, I wasn't. I was his kitchonmaid." She stopped, enjoying my look of surprise, then nodded at the alderman over the chimneypiece. " Yes, there he is, a knight and alderman of the City of London. I must tell you how it came about, as your father hasn't done so. You're sure you'll not take a glass of wine first ?" I declined apain and again before she began her story, settling her cap ribbons and stroking the cat into a contented purr. " Yes, I was kitchenmaid at Sir Josiah Postlethwaite's fine establishment in Bloomsbury square. TTiro.^ r o. were three other servants, ai.il nice times they had of it. All the house to themselves from breakfast time till Sir Josiah returned about 6 o'clock from the City. Once or twice a week there might be company at dinner, and very grand dinners those were. All the rest of the week nothing particular to do, or if there was I had to d > it.. I never set eyes on my master till one day about 12 o'clock he came home unexpectedly and rang the library bell. The butler was out on some errand of his own, the housemaid getting a new dress tried on, so I had to answer it. I found him in this very chair, with his overcoat still on and his hat in his hand, just as he had dropped down in it, ' I'm, not very well,' he said. ' Can you get me something hot— soup or something, and a glass of wine ?' What a temper cook flew into 1 She wasn't going to serve meals all day long for anybody. I got it at last, but the butler had the wine-cellar and side-board keys in his pocket. However, Sir Josiah could touch nothing after all. ' What's your name— you are a new comer, are you not ?' he asked. ' Bessy Alison ? And you come from Workington ?' and he looked quite pleased. The butler came in just then, so I went back to the kitchen. Presently down came my gentleman looking very white and flustered. ' I'm going,' he says. 'Me and master have had a difference.' Then he and the others had a long talk together in the pantry. ' Bessy, master says you're to go for Dr Shaw— No. 15— just across the square.' I thought he might have told me sooner, but I ran at once. I was kept some time, \nd when I got back I found the house open, but not a creature downstairs, only all their boxes fastened np and labelled in the scullery. Master and I were left alone in the house, and he was sickening for fever, so the doctor said.

" Nurses weren't to be had then as they are now ; and, besides, Sir Josiah wouldn't let anyone near him but me. So a woman was got to do the rough work, and I nursed him day and night till he got better. As soon as he was well he asked me to marry him. He wasn't the sort of sweetheart I'd fancied to h aye _p OO r little old gentleman— but I'd saved his life, and couldn't bear the thoughts of deserting him now, ho I said • Yes,' and never repented it. He was a good husband to me while he lived, and when he died left me every penny he possessed just to do as I chose with."

"It's a great responsibility," I said, inwardly wondering how soon we raight set to business.

She shook her head solemnly. " It's not the mere giving away oi the money*; it's the seeing that it does no mischief that troubles me. You see I've no kin of my own to whom I might rightfully leave it all, nor are there any alive of Josiah's. Then I thought of his first wife, poor soul, a born lady, who helped him and loved him while he was young and poor, and died just as the good times were coming. I've tried to find Mrs Postlewaite's people out, and do what I can for them. And there's charities enough to swallow the whole amount, but your father made me proraise to take nothing on trust, but to find out for myself how they would be likely to spend.

w.i'i-r

it if I gave it them ; and that has been a long job, and a heart-breaking one. I'm nearly settled now, but there are still changes to be S'ie lurned over the leaves of the will, making comments on each bequest, while I made a few ineffective notes, and strove to possess my soul in patience. I wa3 rewarded. She ended by produoing a most business-like lii tie list, of the additions she desired. They wore few and trifling till we came to the last, over which she paused and hesitated. "Colonel the Reverend Vandenhoff St George, £50,000." I opened my eyes, as well I might. " Did you never hear of him ? I thought every one must know the great work he's doing in the West End. The converted dragoon the paper here calls him. He has his Tuesday and Friday meetings here, too. A n afternoon tea for ladies on Tnesdays, and a smoking concert for gentlemen on Fridays. He's a grand speaker. You must come and j hear him. I want to give him a chapel of j his own, as the clergy won't have him in the j church. Now, when will you come and meet him 7" I was prepared with an evasion, but just then the door opened, and a fur-clad young lady entered briskly, carrying a violin c\so. She stopped when she t;tw me, and, with a ! pretty gesture of apology, withdrew. | " You can come in, Letty. We've done all j our business. How did the rehearsal go off ? j You're just in time to show Mr Austen the ! azaleas' before lunch. You'll not mind being j left to Letty for half an hour, Mr Philip? There are some things I think I can do better j myself than anyone else, and a vol-au-vent is j one of them." I made another effort to escape— a feeble one 'this time— and, having collected my papers, found myself following " Letty " or " Mu-s Dorrian," as I discovered her name to be, through the hall into the large conservatory with its banks of bloom— the dear old lady's one extravagance, as I was informed "She'll spend her money right royally for other people's good— or their pleasure— that's the best good to some of us, you know," laughed the girl. Two little maids, in bigaprons and mob caps, looked up from scrubbing the encaustic tiles as we passed. "Look at them— miserable little lodging house slaveys when she discovered them. She'll teach and train them into perfect little servants— she has the gift— and then, when she might begin to get some comfort out of them, send them off into good_ places and beo;in all over again with a series of fresh incapables. The house is full of them— and of us." " Who are ' us' 7" I inquired, as we made our way from the azaleas in the palm house. "Odds and ends, waifs and strays of girls wanting holidays or music lessons, or pretty frocks, or anything we can't get and she can give us. She's a saint upon earth," Miss Dorrian went on with enthusiasm it was pretty to see. " A comical, cozy, comfortable saint, helping the needy, never sparing herself, wise and kind and unselfish. Why shouldn't a saint wear satin gowns and smart caps 7" I was unable to raise an objection, so we wandered on from the palms into the orchid house and so back again, by which time I had mentally voted skating very poor fun, and Hendon the last place I wished to see that afternoon. Just as we gained the entrance to the hall, Miss Dorrian stopped suddenly. A loud imperative knock and ring resounded through the house. Then a loud imperative voice inquired for Lady Postlethwaite, and someone passed in with a heavy martial tread. " That man again ! " she whispered with a black frown. "Do you know him 7 That converted Colonel 7" " Salvation Army rank, I suppose 7 " "Nothing so respectable. Her Majesty dispensed with his services for some very good reasons that his friends don't care to inquire into. He says he has a mission to the upper classes. I don't know what he does in the West End, but; here all the little suburban gentilities run after him to revel in the society of the aristocratic fellowconverts he introduces them to. Lord Levant relates his turf experiences with penitence and abasement, and Lady Mildred Bagley holds forth about the dark days when she was a worldling and a society beauty." " I know them both, professionally. Not in connection with anything approaching a religious service by any means, unless it's the collection." We had gained the drawing room door, and Miss Dorrian nodded, laughed and left me to enter by myself.

The reverend Oolonel stood with his big feet firmly planted on the white rug before the fire. A tall, broad-shouldered fellow, floridly good looking, and with aloud aggressive, manner. Lady Postlethwaite in a fresh and smarter cap sat in a low chair beneath him looking" up admiringly. She introduced me in a pleased little flutter, whereon he drew himself up smartly like a sentry on dnt.v.

"Friend or enemy 7 Give the countersign." This startling reception was, I imagined, a bit of special affectation, so I made a point of being quite unimpressed, returned the stare of his black eyes with a bland smile and replied : "As I don't happen to know which side you are on, suppose you consider me a neutral."

"Which side lam on ?"— he began, but I refrain from a full report of the discourse which followed. If he was in earnest it was in the worst of taste ; if not, simply blasphemous. " I shall enlist you yet. You are a recruit after my own heart," he concluded, slapping me on the shoulder as we went in to luncheon. He gave us a long grace, much edifying my dear old hostess, and then proceeded to rejoice her heart by a thorough and frank enjoyment of the good things before him. He complimented her on the dishes, ordered up varieties of wine, sent the tittle maids in waiting flying hither and rhither, addressing them as "Mary, my dear," and made sundry gallant speeches to Miss Dorrian, for which I could have cheerfully seen him choked on the spot. He was an amusing deg withal ; even I was compelled to admit". He had a jovial and rollicking way of relating his adventures and they were strange and amusing ones ; and he put in his dash of piety artistically so as not to spoil a good story, and to pass one or two which otherwise might have been considered rather risky,

Lady Postlethwaite opened her eyes and clasped her hands at his narrations of peril by land and sea; or smiled and purred delightedly over his minute accounts of the sayings and doings of the royal personages with whom he had been privileged to associate. Afterwards he sat down to the piano and sang us a rattling hilarious hymn or two, with an irresistible chorus, followed by some plaintive North Country ditties that made Lady Postlethwaite wipe her eyes and rub her glasses. I don't wonder at the success ! of the smoking concerts. His voice, witb training, might have been a fortune to him. I left him in the possession of the field. I found my father too ill to attend to my report. There seemed no chance of his being able to attend to business for many a day to come. So as soon as the codicil was prepared it fell to my share to pay Lady Postlethwaite a second visit. She received me as kindly as before, but seemed absent and disturbed. " I should like to see your good father. How soon will he be back? " she asked, as she searched for a piece of red ribbon to enclose the will and codicil. " He'll not stop a day longer at Carlsbad than he can help, you may be sure. I'll send him to you at once." 1 saw how her hands shook as she tied up the envelope. She stopped once and seemed about to speak to me ; but checked herself and dismissed the little maid who had witnessed the codicil, with insi ructions to bring in " The old Madeira. Mr Austen's wine." I lighted a taper and she produced Sir Josiah's ponderous gold chain and seals. " Colonel St. George " was announced, and the chain and seal fell clashing to tho floor. The Colonel saluted me with his customary boisterous geniality, and withdrew with a newspaper to the window while wo finished our business. I was glad to get away from him and, in dread of an invitation to dinner, accepted a glass of the old Madeira and bade a hasty farewell. The wine had a envious effect upon me I fancied. After leaving the house I lingered about, reluctant to go, haunted by the aggravating idea that I had left some commission unfulfilled, or forgotten somejimportant part of my errand. I felt for the key. I had that safe enough, and I knew I had locked the door securely. I must hurry home if I wanted to see my father, so hailing the first cab I jumped in, throwing my overcoat on the front seat. We had reached tho end of the road before I glanced at it and there, lying beside it, was Lady Postlethwaite's will. There is no mistake about it. How had it come there 7 Had we locked up the wrong paper ? I stopped the driver, and as I did so the paper slipped from my hand. I searched, and so did he, but in vain. The window had been shut ; it could not have fallen out. Had I been dreaming? I felt ashamed of the idea but how else oould I account for this. "That old Madeira," I mentally decided. "My unlucky governor 1 [f he goes there often I don't wonder he ha<to finish at Carlsbad." I saw him off and spent the rest of the evening with an old college friend who had come up to town about marriage settlements. He had a great deal to tell me about his lady love and I sat smoking, tranquilly listening to his raptures and thinking— who knows why— about Letty Dorrian. I was awakened early next morning by Harris, my father's man, who stood by my bed-side with a face of concern. "Very sorry to have to rouse you, sir ; but a most urgent message has come— Lady Postlethwaite, sir— would you kindly bring that key at once!" I sprang up. "Hot water directly, Harris, and send for a cab. How did the message come 7" Harris' blank look stopped me. " What time did Lady Postlethwaite send ? " " Lady Postlethwaite, sir 1 I never mentioned her ladyship. I was saying that cook says the boiler pipes is froze up she thinks, aud she wants to know what she is to do about your bath and the kitchen fire 7 Sorry to disturb you, sir." I laughed it off to Harris, but I felt annoyed, and the annoyance lasted all that day and far into the night. I dreamed of that sealed packet till morning. Now I was opening the envelope and discovering the contents to be a monster poster of one of Colonel St. George's afternoon teas ; or I was hunting frantically for that key through piles and piles of old rusty bunches which Letty, her eyes full of tears, threw down before me ; or I was reading the will and turning the pages over in vain search of the last sheet, while the Colonel laid his heavy hand on my shoulder and sang his jovial chorus in my ear. Always the two together, and always connected by some notion of foul play and derision. I awoke fagged and unrefreshed and seriously concerned about my state of health. I had no time to attend to it just then, however, and by midday had almost forgotten my troubles. My friend asked me to dinner to meet another old schoolfellow, a young doctor named Mellor. We fooiked in at a theatre after dinner, and they both walked home with me. We had a good deal to talk over about old times, and lingered sauntering up and down one side of our sober, old-fashioned square, almost deathlike in its stillness after the j noisy Strand. At last I ran up our steps and i rang the bell, then suddenly turned chill and faint, catching hold of Mellor's arm. "What's that?" j " This 7 " said Mellor, surprised, stooping I and picking up a white long-folded paper that lay at my feet. " Something of yours. I didn't see you drop it, though." I held out a shaking hand. This could be no delusion. I touched, I held, I saw—distinctly as ever I did— Lady Postlethwaite's will. I turned "it over. I -wr in" the" bright moonlight the red ribbon fastened with the great red seal. I read the two gothic letters "J. P.," and saw the endorsement in the precise old hand : " Elizabeth Postlethwaite, 16th February, 1888." I knew Mellor was wondering at me as I stood gazing stupidly. Then came the clatter of a boy's feet on the pavement and a youth cantered up gaily. " Beg pardon, sir. Have you seen a parcel 7 . Yes, sir ; that's it. Thought I must have drooped it here. Left a note in your box from Johnson and Palliser just now." The front door opened, letting out a blaze of gas, in which I saw in my hand a commonplace, parcel fastened with, an ordinary

twist of string, with no resemblance to the will but in size. I gave it up in such confusion that Mellor looked oddly at me. " Aren't you well, Austen 1 " " I doh't know. Come in. I want to consult you." He looked serious over my story, asked a string of questions, and ended by pronouncing it a case of hallucination, brought on by debility and over- work. Could I not take a holiday at once 1 I demurred. Next thing to'impossible in my father's absence. " Then I'll write you a prescription for a composing draught. Let me know how you feel after a night of unbroken sleep." He did so. I had a night of sweet, dreamless sleep, and felt so well next morning that I wrote in the joy of my heart to say so. I was interrupted by my clerk before I had finished the first few lines. When I read them over they ran as follows : — "Dear Lady Postlethwaite, — I will be with you without fail early to-morrow, as you desire." I threw the pen down in a sort of panic. My mind was going ; I felt convinced of it. I" sent for Mellor, who looked graver than before. " You must have further advice. I may have overdone that sleeping draught, and it is taking its revenge. I can't be sure. Hero is the address of a first-rato man — a specialist. Go and talk to him." I promised him I would. The great man ordered me away without loss of time. He also gave me another variety of sleeping stuff. I took it with the most singular result. It seemed to deprive me at once of all volition, while leaving my senses as acute as ever. Harris bade me "Good night," and left me, believing me to be sound asleep ; but though I had been unable to reply to him by a word or the lifting of an eyelid, I could hear every movement he made, and follow the sounds by which I knew the house was being closed for tho night. I lay so for more than an hour, and then in the same strange, mesmerised condition I got up and dressed, let myself quietly out, and, I hardly know how, found myself on my way to Lincoln's Inn. I had the keys of the office with me, though I had no recollection of bringing them, and let myself in. I next remember opening the tin box with Sir J. Postlethwaite's name still outside, and searching among the papers there. I found, as I knew I should, a duplicate copy which my father had made of the will, but not of the codicil. I brought it away, and also tho sealed envelope containing the book-case key. I left all safe, made my way home, and sank into a long, dreamless, refreshing sleep, that lasted till Harris woke me. The copy of the will lay on my dressing, table and the key beside it. I sat and looked at them in a sort of panic. Then a sudden determination seized me. I would go at ©nee to Lady Postlethwaite and see if, once brought into contact with the realities, my visions might not of themselves depart. There was no harm trying. I made a rapid despatch of the day's business and drove down — late as it was — to the Deodaras. The little maid-servant had disappeared, and a hulking man in a smart livery opened the door. He stared at me for all reply to my inquiry. I repeated it—" Is Lady Postlethwaite at home 7" " Lady Postlethwaite St George is not at home 7" was the astounding answer I received. I stood in surprised consternation. The door was closing in my face when a young lady, who was crossing the hall, turned and looked at me, and with a glad cry ran forward and caught me by the hand. It was Miss Dorrian. She drew me in without another word, past the staring servant, into the room where we had first met. " She was afraid you were not coming. Did you never get a letter from her 7" " Never. But what does this mean 1 Lady Postlethwaite St George 7 Ha«? she married that man 7" Letty clasped her hands and looked piteously in my face. " Oh, is it not miserable 7 What can have possessed her ? Did you know or guess anyjj thing of it when you were here?" " Nothing. How should I?" " She may have been married to him even then. We don't know when or where it took place. She must have been infatuated, poor dear, and then ashamed of it. I know she kept the secret as long as he would let her, but he got impatient and wanted to corns here as master. I think people were getting a little tired of his preaching, and it was not paying so well. He has given it up, that is ; one good thing." " Are you staying here 7" "In his house 7 No indeed ! I leffc the very day I heard of it. I took advantage of his being away to-night to come and see her. rhe was so overcome I hardly knew how to leave her. I will tell her you are here." She hurried away and I waited, looking around me. The house had suffered visible change and deterioration. The room smelt of tobacco, empty soda-water bottles littered the sideboard, a crumpled sporting paper was stuffed into the cushion of the dear old lady's chair, and a card of racing engagements was stuck in poor Sir Josiah's frame, which, like everything, else, was thick with dust. Letty reappeared directly. "You are to come to her at once, and you are to bring the will with you if you have the key." I took out the key with a curious feeling that I had done it all before, and knew exactly what would happen next. I could see the packet through the narrow slit of glass, but the lock refused to turn at first. I withdrew the key, and found a tiny morsel ,of wax clogging the wards. Then I tried again, this time with success. The packet was just as I had seen it when Lady Postlethwaite and I left it there. Lady Postlethwaite was in her bedroom cowering over the fire, wrapped in a big dressing-gown in which she looked grievously small and shrunken. Her face was drawn and aged, and tears came into her eyes as she held out a shaky hand to me. She held me tight as if feeling some comfort in the clasp cf my fingers. " I wish it were your good father that had come, Mr Philip. He'd maybe have had more pity |or me than you young folks. 4v ?

been a foolish old woman and a very unhappj one." «• We needn't talk about it, need we 1 Can't I do something to help you ?" "Yes, you can. I was just wearying to see you. I've been thinking that though I've ruined all that's left me of my own life, I must make sure that others don't suffer for my madness. I want to go over that will again, Mr Philip. It'll stand good, you know. Poor Josiah took care of that." I gave it to her and she turned it over and over, examining it keenly. Then she opened it. " Lord save us 1" she cried. " Look here 1" The contents lay in her lap, So many blank sheets of foolscap, nothing else. She looked from them to us once or twice. Then she sat bolt upright, her eyes began to shine and the trembling of her hands ceased. « My desk, Letty, quick." She folded the sheets together and slowly and consideringly wrote a few lines on the outer one. " Now, Mr Philip, can you and Letty make that envelope look as if it had never been opened ?" We managed to do so by the aid of a fresh ribbon and by carefully spreading the wax of Ihe new seal over the place where the old one had been broken open. ' Now Mr Philip, I shall want you at once to draw me a fresh will exactly like the old one. How soon can you do it ?" (l I have a duplicate here now, Lady Postlethwaite. You have only to sign it. But the coiHcil, what about that? And Colonel St George — you must consider him." " I have considered him. He will find a remembrance there," she nodded towards the sealed packet. "As much as I dare do for him now." We were interrupted by the announcement of the doctor's arrival. I was glad, for I fancied I saw signs of feverish exhaustion in the poor old woman. I was glad, too, to hear the name of a man high in his profession. I knew it well by reputation. Letty and I withdrew to the cheerless dining room, where I replaced the packet in the bookcase, and then stood beside her over the fireless, ashy grate/talkiug sorrowfully of the gentle, useful life so woefully cut short. "Do you think her very ill?" she asked. "I am afraid so. Can you guess what nils her T " I think her heart is broken !" Letty said with a sob. "He didn't ill-use her, as you mean by ill-usage, but she loved him and believed in him— and now she knows him as he is. Oh, it's cruel, cruel I" We were again summoned to Lady Postlethwaite. Letty trembled so as we approadlied the door that I caught her hand half unconsciously to reassure her, and it was on our joined hands that the old lady's sharp eyes glanjed as we entered. She cast a rapid interrogating look on my face. I felt Letty start and the little lingers thrill warm to their tips. I deliberately stooped and raised them to my lips, while Lady Postlethwaite's face lighted up with amusement, comprehension, and satisfaction all in a flash. The doctor, standing near her had lost the by-play. "I'm telling Dr Vincent what I'm after, and he's not objecting. Stay where you are, doctor, Now, Mr Philip, read that will over again." One bequest— that to "my dear friend, Letitia Dorrian " had been left blank. I asked what sum I was to fill in. " Fifty thousand pounds," she said firmly. Letty gave a cry and I hesitated. " It won't be all for herself," she went on. "I can trust her. Letty, you know my wishes and all I should have liked to do if I had lived a free women. You'll make good all I leave undone, eh, dear ? And may be, Mr Philip here may give you his help if you ask him." And the ghost of a kindly twinkle shone in her eyes. The will was duly signed, the doctor and his coachman acting as witnesses. She gave it to me. "Keep this and tell no one. Let the other be opened first. Now I should like you to have this; it will never be used again. Take it with my love, and good-bye." % She placed Sir Josiah's massive chain and seal in my hands ; then drew me down and softly kissed my forehead. I never saw her again. My father was terribly concerned to receive the invitation to the funeral of his good old friend directly on his return. We both went, curious to see how events would turn out. It was an imposing affair. The arrangements were of the costliest description. Colonel St George Postlethwaite, in the profoundest of mourning, was, of course, the centre of interest, a spectacle of heart-broken bereavement. Invitations had been sent far and wide. Old city friends of Sir Josiah's, governors of charitable institutions, the local clergy, every creature who could be assumed to have the slightest claim to such an attention. Lord Levant and a train of aristocratic converts rallied round their evangelist. There were others, uninvited guests, who thronged the cemetery, no one knew who or how many, grieving sorely for their kind, lost friend; and I fancied I could distinguish a scattering of the poor dead Mrs Postlethwaite's kin, an anxious-faced struggling set, to whom the withdrawal of their earthly providence made the future a very black look-out indeed. The Colonel was liberal in his invitations'to the sumptuous ".luncheon which followed, at which he presided with subdued geniality. He had resumed his"piety for the occasion, and his conversation was most edifying. "Now, gentlemen," jhe began, when the servants had withdrawn: "I am a plain soldier, and only accustomed to plain speakmg. You all want to know, of course, how my dear wife has disposed of the property of which, in her lifetime, she was so faithful a steward." (I omit irrelevancies, however improving). «Sodo I. She kept her own affairs in her hands to the last, and I wasc't the man to prevent her doing so. Whatever she did, she did of her own free will, uninfluenced by me. And I will say here, that up to the hour of her death, she was as clear'loaded, right-minded a woman of business as anyone could find. Is it not so, Dr Vincent." The doctor gave an emphatic assent. , " You must ask these gentlemen," indicatlng my father and me, " about her investments, and about her testamentary dispositions, if there are any ; but I tell you, gentlemen, that Ido not expect to find any. She Was not a woman to trust by halves, and she knew her worldly wealth in my hands would bo blessed, &c, &o.

" Hear, hear 1" from Lord Levant. A thrill of consternation seemed to run round the room af tei this plain declaration. The charity officials looked blankly into one another's faces, and the hungry-eyed relatives glared on us with woolfish eyes as my father took the key from me. " Let's look here first, if you please. If there is a will, we shall find it here." He drew forth the packet, and handed it to the Colonel, who, with an insredulqus shake of the head, opened it. The sight of his wife's hand-writing inside made him pause and lopk wildly around. " This is private— not awill, you see. It's nothing, nothing." He' dropped into his chair, while the blank sheets of foolscap strewed the floor at his feet, keeping his hand clutched tightly over his wife's last message. His face took a ghastly hue. He drew the nearest decanter to him, and poured ont a glassful. It was clear my time had come. I gave, the circumstances as briefly as I could, referred to Colonel St. George's own testimony as to his wife's state, and produced the veritable last will of Lady Postlethwaite. The hungry-eyed relatives grew serene and placid as the reading went on, the charity officials shook hands with one another, and my father " Blessed his soul " copiously when it ended. They all came crowding round me to examine it and question me as to the de« tails, and in the confusion Colonel St. George Postlethwaite disappeared from our sight for ever. So did Lady Postlethwaite's dressingcase and a large sum of ready money which was known to be in the house. Colonel St. George is sorely missed by a large circle of believing followers, and I hear still more so by a larger circle of unsatisfied creditors. " And to think that if the scoundrel had only left that will alone he would have succeeded to the whole. The poor old lady would never have known that her subsequent marriage invalidated it. A quarter of a million lost for the want of a little ordinary legal knowledge. " Bless my soul I" says my father.